Sade (2000)

67% of critics liked it
(30 reviews)
51% of users liked it
(1,098 ratings)

Daniel Auteuil stars as the infamous Marquis de Sade, who at the beginning of Sade, is serving a sentence in Paris' grim Saint Lazarde prison. The year is 1794, and Sade is being persecuted for his steadfast atheism, which runs counter to the beliefs of Robespierre, France's terrifying revolutionary… More Daniel Auteuil stars as the infamous Marquis de Sade, who at the beginning of Sade, is serving a sentence in Paris' grim Saint Lazarde prison. The year is 1794, and Sade is being persecuted for his steadfast atheism, which runs counter to the beliefs of Robespierre, France's terrifying revolutionary leader. The Marquis is granted something of a reprieve when he is transferred -- courtesy of his mistress Sensible (Marianne Denicourt) -- to Picpus, a former convent that now serves as the equivalent of a luxury prison. Although Picpus is not without its own guillotine and mass grave, Sade is more concerned with the blossoming Emilie (Isild Le Besco). Meanwhile, Sensible, who has a son who calls Sade "Papa," is forced to share the bed of her own protector, Fournier (Gregoire Colin), a moody lout who hates Sade and works for none other than Robespierre. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 37 min.
Directed By: Benoît Jacquot, Daniel Auteuil
Written By: Jacques Fieschi, Bernard Minoret
Genres: Art House & International, Drama

In Theaters: Nov 17, 2000 Wide
On DVD: Dec 9, 2003
Studio: Empire Pictures

Critic Reviews

Tom Sime, Dallas Morning News
Sade is Quills without the hyperbole and melodrama.
Wesley Morris, Boston Globe
It's a rosy coming-of-age romp that refuses to see the horror even in the severed heads from the guillotine.
Loren King, Chicago Tribune
This Sade is hardly a perverse, dangerous libertine and agitator -- which would have made for better drama. He's just a sad aristocrat in tattered finery, and the film seems as deflated as he does.
Jonathan Curiel, San Francisco Chronicle
If you're looking for a smart, nuanced look at de Sade and what might have happened at Picpus, Sade is your film.
Desson Thomson, Washington Post
Lacks dramatic punch and depth.
Stephen Hunter, Washington Post
There has always been something likable about the Marquis de Sade.
MaryAnn Johanson, Flick Filosopher
[A] treacherously seductive and highly disturbing film...
Rich Cline, Film Threat
A fiercely clever and subtle film, capturing the precarious balance between the extravagant confidence of the exiled aristocracy and the cruel earnestness of the victorious revolutionaries.
Nick Carter, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
This time out, [Sade] is an unsettlingly familiar figure -- in turns loyal and deceitful, responsible and reckless, idealistically selfless and coldly self-interested.
Phil Villarreal, Arizona Daily Star
The Marquis de Sade couldn't have been as dull a person as this film makes him out to be.
Marta Barber, Miami Herald
In Auteil's less dramatic but equally incisive performance, he's a charismatic charmer likely to seduce and conquer.
Robin Clifford, Reeling Reviews
The reason to see "Sade" lay with the chemistry and complex relationship between the marquis (Auteil) and Emilie (Le Besco).
Laura Clifford, Reeling Reviews
Featuring a dangerously seductive performance from the great Daniel Auteuil, "Sade" covers the same period as Kaufmann's "Quills" with more unsettlingly realistic results.
Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
More concerned with Sade's ideas than with his actions. The movie achieves as great an impact by keeping these thoughts hidden as... [Quills] did by showing them.
Rod Armstrong, Reel.com
The movie fails to portray its literarily talented and notorious subject as anything much more than a dirty old man.